Hedge Fund Advertising – Managed Futures Style

It’s been one week since the SEC made an unprecedented decision to strip the multi-decade old ban on general solicitation by hedge funds, and the potential implications are endless. While we often stand up and tell anyone who will listen that managed futures are not hedge funds… in this case – the privately offered funds of managed futures programs are surely part of ”hedge fund advertising’.

So is a scene like this coming soon?

Now, the privately offered funds of managed futures programs are called Commodity Pools within the industry, and the managers who run such pool must become registered with the CFTC and NFA as Commodity Pool Operators. This means they are subject to periodic audits, have to submit quarterly reports on their balances and positions, and coming soon – give access to their bank accounts for the NFA to automatically check that the money is where the fund says it is (sorry aspiring Madoffs.)

The problem from an asset raising standpoint with a Commodity Pool is that a pool is technically a privately offered security – meaning you can’t market it or advertise the offering in any way. Strictly speaking, that means no posting it to databases such as BarclayHedge, no soliciting at conferences such as AlphaMetrix and the CTA Expo, and so on. And just to confuse things – commodity pools are regulated by the National Futures Association (NFA), but the NFA has no rules saying that a commodity pool can’t be solicited to the general public. That rule comes from the SEC (the securities regulator), because a pool is technically considered a security, even though it is registered with the futures regulator.

So what does this landmark ruling by the Securities folks mean for the commodity pools/managed futures funds sort of caught in between securities and futures regulations:

Overview: This is good news for us and the industry… maybe. There’s no reason managed futures funds shouldn’t be able to advertise, seeing as how it doesn’t stamp out the metric ton of regulation requiring disclosures and disclaimers and all that fun stuff. The paperwork to allocate is still thick enough to kill a nasty spider.And when a mutual fund can put an advertisable (is that a word?) product together which invests in these very funds – it only seems fair to let the fund themselves compete.

History: A quick history lesson for those of you who are familiar with the previous rule. Before there was such a thing called, “Hedge Funds,” there was a rule by the government barring private unregistered investments from advertising. It was created in response to the Great Depression when many a scamster advertised investing in this and that snake oil company with little to no company actually behind it. The idea to get rid of it was packaged as a way to generate jobs and spur the economy, by allowing smaller companies to utilize crowd funding to buy equipment, hire more employees, etc. with the money they raise publicly via their advertising method of choice. But with hedge funds being a little more than private companies (who don’t build or sell anything – rather they invest and trade the capital of the company), the law is more likely to be used by them than the local ice cream shop looking to buy a waffle cone maker.

The Vote: 4 of the 5 on the commission approved the change, the one disapproving was commissioner Luis Aguilar, citing lack of protections as the reason for his vote in a FIN alternatives article.

“Without common-sense protections, general solicitation will prove a great boon to the fraudster,” he said. “Experience tells us that this will lead to economic disaster for many investors.”

What this Means for Investors:

1. There will likely be a huge increase in the number of people trying to separate you from your money. Most of it will be dangerous and no good, some of it will be new and exciting (and ultimately no good), and some of it will be the real thing – very talented small to midsize managers who are just trying to expand their reach.

2. There will be a big learning curve for most investors, where they need to get up to speed on the language of funds (custodians, administrators, sponsors, trading advisers, auditors, and more), the unique structure of funds (money pooled with other investors, separate classes of investment, gates, redemption penalties, and more), and the unique fee structure of funds (sponsor fees, admin fees, management fees, incentive fees, and the break-even point of all those).

3. There will be more fraud, with the fraudster who used to raise a few million off his local community now able to perhaps raise a few hundred million off the entire country/world via advertising.

At the end of the day, advertisements, by their nature, are not overly informative, so we’re not sure where this leads the average investor. If it means more managed futures funds are willing and able to talk about their programs in a public fashion, awesome. Come talk about your fund on our blog! If it means a bunch of 30 second spots which do next to nothing in terms of educating investors, and instead appeal to their greed and fear instincts to raise money – we’re in trouble.

What this Means for Managers:

1. The high rollers with endless money probably don’t want to get their feet wet with this one, although you may see something like our photoshop wizardy above to build brand awareness/meet manager egos. But many large funds are notorious for their conservative stance towards new investors, fearing lawsuits. What will they think about advertising – will the risks of lawsuits by investors brought to the fund via general advertising outweigh the (likely small) rewards for many already successful funds.

2. For small and mid-size funds – the risk of advertising will most likely be worth the potentially sizable reward, but the problem there is the small and mid-size pool operators don’t have the money to put ads on CNBC or in Forbes magazine, for example. They will be relegated to doing targeted efforts via digital campaigns and so forth.

3. What do the economics look like? If I’m a big fund and can get a pension or endowment to invest $50 million after several meetings, a few plane fares and dinners (call it 20k in costs), I might have to spend 100s of k in advertising to get 500 $100,000 investors to equal the same $50 million. If I’m looking at a return on investment of just 1/10 my usual efforts, will I find general advertising appealing?

4. Increased NFA scrutiny? The SEC voted against assuming the role of watchdog over such advertisements, meaning it will likely be a free for all on the hedge fund side. But registered commodity pool operators will have to comply with NFA rules regarding communication with the public and promotional material, and have such material subject to review by NFA staff which have been very inconsistent in their interpretations of the rules. (So don’t be surprised if you see an ad for a large fund touting its 45% gain last year, but you are told you can’t do the same thing).

5. Increased competition? Will this even the playing field, allowing small funds to get in front of investors they would not otherwise be able to reach? Or will this be more of the same with the big getting bigger through massive branding campaigns which put a big Winton type fund on the radar of the friend of a friend you are soliciting to invest in your fund. Where he may of never known about managed futures before and you were teaching him how it works and how he can get involved (through you), he may now be left with the choice of the big brand name he knows, and you – the small upstart.

Be like Mike:

Who knows how the future of hedge fund and commodity pool advertising will look, but we can’t help but think back to one of our favorite all time ads, Gatorade’s ‘Be Like Mike’ ad, and envision some hedge fund Jordan is invested in right now trying to find a way to have him shill for them in the same way. Or maybe they’ll take a different tack – asking some celebrity what makes them so rich “It’s Gotta be The Shoes” style: Is it the business? No. The family? No The Hedge Fund…? No… It’s gotta be the hedge fund!

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[…] both investors and managers will face challenges once the ban is formally lifted later this fall. A recent post on research firm Attain Capital Management’s blog noted that “advertisements, by their nature, are not overly informative, so we’re not sure […]

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DISCLAIMER

Forex trading, commodity trading, managed futures, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. You should not rely on any of the information as a substitute for the exercise of your own skill and judgment in making such a decision on the appropriateness of such investments.

The entries on this blog are intended to further subscribers understanding, education, and - at times - enjoyment of the world of alternative investments through managed futures, trading systems, and managed forex. Unless distinctly noted otherwise, the data and graphs included herein are intended to be mere examples and exhibits of the topic discussed, are for educational and illustrative purposes only, and do not represent trading in actual accounts. Opinions expressed are that of the author.

The mention of specific asset class performance (i.e. +3.2%, -4.6%) is based on the noted source index (i.e. Newedge CTA Index, S&P 500 Index, etc.), and investors should take care to understand that any index performance is for the constituents of that index only, and does not represent the entire universe of possible investments within that asset class. And further, that there can be limitations and biases to indices such as survivorship and self reporting biases, and instant history.

The performance data for various Commodity Trading Advisor ("CTA") and Commodity Pools are compiled from various sources, including Barclay Hedge, RCM's own estimates of performance based on account managed by advisors on its books, and reports directly from the advisors. These performance figures should not be relied on independent of the individual advisor's disclosure document, which has important information regarding the method of calculation used, whether or not the performance includes proprietary results, and other important footnotes on the advisor's track record.

The mention of general asset class performance (i.e. managed futures did well, stocks were down, bonds were up) is based on RCM’s direct experience in those asset classes, estimates of performance of dozens of CTAs followed by RCM, and averaging of various indices designed to track said asset classes.

The mention of market based performance (i.e. Corn was up 5% today) reflects all available information as of the time and date of the publication.

The owner of this blog, RCM Alternatives, may receive various forms of compensation from certain investment managers highlighted and/or mentioned within the blog, including but not limited to retaining: a portion of trade commissions, a portion of the fees charged to investors by the investment managers, a portion of the fees for operating a fund for the investment managers via affiliate Attain Portfolio Advisors, or via direct payment for marketing services.

Managed Futures Disclaimer:

Past Performance is Not Necessarily Indicative of Future Results. The regulations of the CFTC require that prospective clients of a managed futures program (CTA) receive a disclosure document when they are solicited to enter into an agreement whereby the CTA will direct or guide the client’s commodity interest trading and that certain risk factors be highlighted. The disclosure document contains a complete description of the principal risk factors and each fee to be charged to your account by the CTA.

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Disclaimer

Forex trading, commodity trading, managed futures, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors.
The mention of market based performance (i.e. Corn was up 5% today) reflects all available information as of the time and date of the publication.